The Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program

Richard H. Daffner, M.D., FACR, Program Director
Melanie B. Fukui, M.D., Associate Program Director

Length of program: 4 years
Number of position(s): 16 (4 at each level)

All of the department's faculty are certified by the American Board of Radiology and have been carefully recruited because of their expressed interest in teaching and commitment to providing the best overall educational experience to residents. The faculty is committed to the educational goals of the residency program, the principal of these being to:

• Provide residents with sufficient training to allow them to achieve a high level of clinical expertise in the radiologic diagnosis of disease processes
  
  
• Train residents in the competent technical performance of radiological procedures
  
  
• Support residents in their efforts to acquire the expertise to correctly interpret the results of radiological examinations and to gain an understanding of the pathophysiology and radiological manifestations of diseases, as well as an understanding of the prognosis to be anticipated and of general knowledge relating to the preferred treatment alternative
  
  
• Instill residents with the intellectual motivation to recognize the need to maintain their expertise by continuing education and self-study in the years beyond their formal training period, and to guide and support resident efforts leading to publication and/or presentation of scholarly activities
  
  
• Provide an environment that encourages inquisitiveness and intellectual curiosity, mentoring by faculty and then by more senior residents to more junior residents, and cooperation with colleagues in the pursuit of education
  
  
• Absolutely stress the importance of quality patient care and service to our patients and referring physycians
  
  
• Ultimately provide residents with the expertise to offer to their nonradiological colleagues consultative radiological service as an integral component of patient management
  
  

To meet these objectives, the educational program is organized into functional subspecialty units to which residents are assigned for repetitive time blocks; these units are abdominal imaging (GI/GU), breast imaging, chest imaging, musculoskeletal radiology, neuroradiology, nuclear radiology, pediatric radiology, obstetric and gynecologic ultrasonography, and vascular and interventional radiology. In addition, residents obtain radiology/pathology experience by attending the six-week course given by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in either PGY-3 or 4. Radiologic physics is covered in a series of lectures given once per week from October through May and twice per week from June through September for a total of 60-plus lecture hours annually.

The program director and faculty strive to maintain the optimum balance of "hands-on" clinical experience in terms of interpretative sessions with faculty, as well as technical skills gained in procedure performance, and learning achieved through a full didactic curriculum offered during daily intradepartmental conferences, noon case conferences, journal club and ongoing multidisciplinary interdepartmental conferences. Ultimately, the chairman, program director and faculty aim their teaching efforts not only for successful board preparation but, more importantly, toward preparing radiologists for successful careers in either academic or private practice radiology, ready to take their place on the patient care management team with their colleagues and keenly interested in furthering their expertise in their chosen specialty.



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